Suggested intervention if anyone finds themselves in this situation in the future: distribute copies of Ender’s Game and/or Methods. Subjectively it feels to me like identifying with Ender / MoR!Harry has made me better at noticing and more motivated to take advantage of these kinds of optimization opportunities.
Regarding penalizing guessing, if you’re going to penalize it you might as well go all the way. My high school math club once hosted a competition which included a round with a ridiculous guessing penalty (free response, 1 point for a correct answer, 0 for a blank, and −3 or −5 for an incorrect answer). Exactly one person out of a hundred-ish got a positive score.
Suggested intervention if anyone finds themselves in this situation in the future: distribute copies of Ender’s Game and/or Methods. Subjectively it feels to me like identifying with Ender / MoR!Harry has made me better at noticing and more motivated to take advantage of these kinds of optimization opportunities.
Regarding penalizing guessing, if you’re going to penalize it you might as well go all the way. My high school math club once hosted a competition which included a round with a ridiculous guessing penalty (free response, 1 point for a correct answer, 0 for a blank, and −3 or −5 for an incorrect answer). Exactly one person out of a hundred-ish got a positive score.